In 1916, the American Red Cross prepared for US possible involvement in the war by organizing base hospitals.  The Red Cross identified several major medical centers or hospitals to organize these units.  The idea was that the doctors and nurses would already work well together.  Each medical center or hospital supplied the personnel, equipment, and supplies for their unit. Twenty two doctors, 2 dentists, 65 Red Cross nurses, 22 nurses’ aides, 153 enlisted men, 6 civilians, and chaplain staffed each base hospital for a two-year service.

Several of our doctors and nurses served with the American Ambulance Hospital in Neuilly a suburb of Paris.  Americans in France who wanted access to medical care by American trained doctors formed the American Hospital of Paris in 1904.  In 1914, the hospital established the American Ambulance Hospital at the Lycee Pasteur School building in Neuilly, France.  They were the first foreign ambulance to be accepted by the French government to serve French soldiers in the war.  The hospital operated from 1914-1917. 

The archives has received a small collection of World War I letters by Robert Schrock, MD who served with Base Hospital No 9.  Dr. Schrock graduated from Cornell University Medical College in 1912.  After graduatation he continued his training at The New York Hospital where he decided to pursue a practice in orthopedic surgery.  When US entered the war in 1917, he was practicing in Omaha, NE.